Apparatus for correcting displacement of weft threads in cloth



Sept. 15%, 1931i .1. J. LY'TH 1,823,265

AP ARATUS FOR CGRREGTI'NG DISPLACEMENT 0F WEFT THREADS iN CLOTH Filed Dec. 12-, 1929 2 Shets' Shet 1 J. J. LYTH 1,823,205

APPARATUS FOR CORRECTING DISPLACEMENT 0F WEF'I' THREADS IN CLOTH Sept. 15, 1931 Filed Dec.

12. 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. 15, 1931 JOHN J. LYTH, OF VALLEYFIELD, QUEBEC, CANADA APPARATUS FOR CORRECTING DISPLACEMENT OF WEF'I THREADS IN CLOTH Application filed December 12, 1929. Serial No. 413,618.

This invention relates to improvements in apparatus for correcting the lie of the weft threads of cloth, which threads have been displaced from their normal position at I right angles to the warp threads, and the objects of the invention are to provide apparatus of this class which may be easily and cheaply manufactured; which may be suspended from the ceiling in convenient relation to other machines and thus not occupy any floor space nor necessitate the moving of other machines; and which will quickly and positively effect a large measure of correction of weft thread displacement.

Various other objects and the advantages of the invention may be ascertained from the following description and accompanying drawings.

The apparatus comprises essentially two normally parallel sets of rollers over which cloth is passed back and forth and means for relatively oscillating the two sets of rollers, so that corresponding ends of the rollersapproacli one another, while at the same time the opposite ends of the rollers recede from one another, thereby to shorten the path of one edge of the cloth and correspondingly lengthen the path of the other edge of the cloth relatively to the unchanging path of the medial line of the cloth.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate that embodiment of the invention now preferred, but to the details of which the invention is not confined, as various modifications and substitutions of mechanical equivalents are possible Fig. 1 is a plan view, 7

Fig. 2 a side elevation, anc

Fig. 3 an end elevation of the apparatus.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 11 and 12 designate upper and lower frames which normally occupy horizontal planes but which may be relatively oscillated to occupy converging planes, either or both of which may be inclined. Preferably one of the frames is rigidly supported in horizontal position and, when the device is adapted for suspension from the ceiling of a room, it is most convenient to rigidly support the up- 50 per frame, for example, by rods 13 passing through brackets 14 secured to the frame and carrying nuts 15 beneath the brackets on which the brackets rest and which enable the vertical adjustment and levelling of the frame. In the case of the rigidly supported upper frame illustrated, the lower frame 12 is oscillatably mounted by means of brackets 16 rigidly secured to and depending from the upper frame, the lower frame being pivotally connected at 17 intermediate its sides to the brackets. Obviously, an inversion of, the structure relatively to the suspension rods will provide a rigidly supported bottom frame and oscillatable top frame. It will be understood that the invention is not confined to one rigidly mounted and one oscillatable frame.

Any suitable number of rolls 18 and 19 are rotat'ably mounted in the frames 11 and 12 respectively, the rolls in each frame being in parallelism and at right angles to the axis of oscillation of the oscillatable frame and the rolls of the two frames being normally in parallelism. The rolls are preferably.

spaced and arranged in staggered relation, so that the rolls of the bottom frame are vertically beneath the spaces between the rolls of the upper frame and best results are obtained when the spacing between rolls is substantially equal to the diameters of the rolls. Preferably, one more roll is provided on the upper frame than on the lower.

The'cloth, designated 20, enters the machine in open width over a roll 18 at one end of the upper frame and down and around an end roll 19 of the lower frame and thence up to the second roll of the upper frame and so on. After passing up and down to and over all the rolls of both frames the cloth leaves the machine over the remaining end roll of the upper frame. For convenience and to hold the cloth clear of the frame, the end rolls of the upper frame are set to project above the top of the frame, as shown, while the intermediate rolls, if any, may be set lower in the frame.

In order to relatively oscillate the frames and the rolls they carry, brackets 21 are provided on the upper and lower frames at one side of the machine and have blocks 22 and 23, respectively, trunnioned thereon on axes parallel with the axis of frame oscillation. One of these blocks, preferably the lower block 23, is internally screw-threaded and constitutes a nut co-operating with a screw 24 which passes through it. The other block 22 is preferably formed with a plain cylindrical bore to form a bearing for the upper threadedless portion of the screw. Thrust collars 25 are fixed to the screw in engagement with the upper and lower ends of the block 22, the upper of these collars conveniently being the hub of a chain wheel 26. A chain 27, preferably endless, (though not so shown) passes over the wheel 26 and over guide rollers 28 mounted in brackets 29 on the upper frame and depends sufficiently for convenient operation of the wheel 26. Any other suitable means may be provided for rotating the screw 24.

The operation of the device is extremely simple. Cloth in open width passes through the straightener en route to a stentering machine and the cloth is inspected as it leaves the straightener. Normally, the rolls of the two frames are parallel. The inspector, upon observing a diagonal displacement of weft threadsin the cloth leaving the straightener, rotates the screw 24: in an appropriate 1 direction by means of the chain 27, or substitute mechanism, thereby causing vertical movement of the nut 23 and oscillation of the lower frame, so that the ends of the lower rolls are moved away from the upper rolls at that edge of the cloth where the weft threads are advanced. The axis of frame oscillation is preferably midway between the ends of the rolls and, in consequence, the opposite ends of the lower rolls are moved toward the upper rolls at that edge of the cloth where the weft threads are lagging. The effect is to provide a longer path for that edge of the cloth where the weft threads are advanced and a shorter path at that edge of the cloth where the weft threads are lagging, while maintaining the path of the longitudinal medial line of the cloth unchanged. Since the cloth is passed through the straightener at uniform lineal speed across its entire width, an increase in the length of path of one edge of the cloth will delay the emergence from the machine of any given point on that edge, while a corresponding decrease in the length of path of the other edge of the cloth will hasten the emergence from the machine of a point on the other edge opposite the first named point. The result is that angularly displaced weft threads are in effect dragged back at one end and equally and simultaneously advanced at the other end until the two ends are in a line at right angles to the edges of the cloth. Thus, the necessary correction is divided between the two edges of the cloth, so that the tension imposed in mounted on one of the frames,

the cloth is as little as possible. Using a suitable number of upper and lower rolls suitably spaced apart, there is sufficient cloth in the machine so that changes of path length are effective on a considerable length of cloth. thus avoiding severe local tension which might injure the warp. Also, by using a number of upper and lower rolls, the desired correction is effected gradually in a step by step manner. As shown, there are six runs of cloth between the upper and lower rolls, thus enabling one-sixth of the correction to be made in each run of the cloth. By increasing the number of rolls, the portion of total correction made in'each run of the cloth is smaller and vice versa. Vhile the length of cloth in the machine is sufiicient for weft displacements to be gently and yet effectively corrected, the length is only a fraction of that held in a stentering machine (wherein correction of weft displacement has been heretofore attempted by advance of .one chain or the other) so that corrections are more local and more perfect than is possible with a stentering machine wherein the correction cannot be more than an average of various displacements. While the correction has been referred to only in reference to the edges of the cloth, it is obvious that similar corrections will occur between the edges and longitudinal centre line of the cloth, the amount of correction decreasing toward the centre line. An angularly displaced weft thread which is straight between the edges of the cloth will be straight after correction, but a thread curved between its ends will be curved after correction, possibly more noticeably than before correction, but its ends will be in line transversely of the cloth so that subsequent stentering will straight line.

When the inspector sees that the weft is properly placed in the cloth leaving the straightener, he knows that the adjustment is correct but, when displacement is again evident, he adjusts the machine as necessary to correct the displacement. Changes in the lie of weft threads in cloth occur gradually in the length of the cloth, so that it is possible for a skilled inspector to gradually adjust the machine in a manner to give substantially perfect lie to all weft threads.

I claim: 1

1. Apparatus for correcting displacement of weft threads in cloth comprising a pair of frames, means rigidly supporting one of the frames, brackets carried by said rigidly supported frame pivotally connected to the other frame, a series of rolls mounted in parallelism and in .a single plane in each of the frames, said rolls being arranged at right angles to the pivotal axis of the pivotally mounted frame, a bearing pivotal-1y a nut pivdraw such a thread into a otally mounted on the other frame, a screw co-operating with said nut and j ournalled in the bearing and means for rotating said screw.

2. Apparatus for correcting displacement of weft threads in cloth comprising a pair of frames movable relatively to one another, rolls mounted in the frames at right angles to the axis of frame movement, and screwand-nut mechanism connected between the frames for moving the frames and their rolls into and out of parallelism.

3. In combination with a device according to claim 1, a chain wheel fixed to the screw, guide rollers mounted on one of the frames adjacent to the chain wheel, and a chain passing over said wheel and guide rolls.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand.

JOHN J. LYTH. 

